In good news for the remaining cast, and particularly the crew of Netflix's political drama House Of Cards, the streaming service has reached an agreement to continue shooting the show and wrapping the series up with an abbreviated sixth season, which will focus on Robin Wright's Claire Underwood, while sidestepping the need for Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood to appear.
The move comes after claims of sexual misconduct were made against Spacey, claims that have multiplied and forced Netflix and production company Media Rights Capital to halt production on the show and potentially to cancel it outright. Now, though, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos made the announcement at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York that Cards will be back in truncated form. "We were really excited we could get to an agreement for the conclusion of the show," he said, adding that he was pleased that the 370 direct staff members and the many more who work on the show in Baltimore will still be employed.
House Of Cards writing team had been scrambling to draft some new material which would allow for Spacey's character to be shoved off screen and for Claire to take centre stage which should be accomplished organically within the narrative, though we can only imagine the scriptwriting hurdles.
No date is on the books for the new season yet, but at least the series will be able to finish more naturally than it might.
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